Top 100 Bay Area Restaurants: Michael Bauer’s 2010 Picks Are In!

Bay Area foodies — and fortunate restaurateurs and chefs — rejoice! San Francisco Chronicle restaurant critic Michael Bauer has released his carefully curated annual list of the “Top 100 Bay Area Restaurants.”

Cuisine types reveal the melting pot that the Bay Area restaurant scene is, with Asian, barbecue, California-Japanese, Chinese, Indian, Moroccan, Peruvian, and Vietnamese populating the list alongside California, Contemporary American, and Italian, among others. A very helpful feature of Bauer’s culinary guide to one of the world’s top cities for food is its noise ratings, a factor that can help diners in search of a lively experience or a peaceful meal. Bauer also points out house specialties to help novices order well. Insider insights regarding parking make arriving in time for your reservation even easier.

While we all may gaze at critics with envy, Bauer has revealed, in his blog and in the accompanying San Francisco Chronicle Magazine article, that putting together this exhaustive, impressive, and informative round-up is anything but easy. Call it a labor of love, but it remains a labor, with hard choices and harsh cuts right up until press time. He writes in the Magazine of the process, ” Maybe next year I should offer the Top 150.” Sounds good to us!

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Caroline Potter

Caroline Potter is the Chief Dining Officer for OpenTable, Inc. She’s a dining trend-spotter and an OpenTable VIP, who dines out more than she eats in and has accrued more than 10,000 Dining Rewards points. Caroline started working in restaurants as a teen and she's since tackled every front-of-the-house job, from bartender and hostess to runner and server. She trained as a chef at Manhattan’s prestigious French Culinary Institute, cooking at L’Ecole. In addition to her role at OpenTable, she has written about food from farm to table for New York City’s famed Greenmarket and Edible Brooklyn and Edible East End magazines. Caroline is also a Certified Master Gardener.